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"Rip" Foster may not be well remembered, but did star for British national teams in both football and cricket in his day. On it's 110th birthday, this card remains in remarkably better shape than "Rip". May he RIP.

"Rip" Foster may not be well remembered, but did star for British national teams in both football and cricket in his day. On it's 110th birthday, this card remains in remarkably better shape than "Rip". May he RIP.

There are no British national teams for either sport.

While Scots, Welsh, and Irish have played for the England cricket side as their own nations don't play the game at test level, in football each of the home countries has its own side. The only exception is special events such as the Olympics, when a UK side has on occasions taken part, usually, as with the current controversy over the 2012 Olympics side, after a great deal of wrangling.

My memory from prior research failed me. Tip is the nickname of this two sport star, whose career is chronicled in the article below. It does appear that that he represented a cricket team from England in Matches is Sydney in 1903. In football he participated in five national games of some sort, against Ireland and Wales from 1900-1902. I hope this clarifies my original post and I hope that I have not offended any soccer fans, historians or members of the Foster family.

Cricket career

Foster was educated at Malvern College and University College, Oxford. He first played for Oxford University Cricket Club in 1897; in addition to cricket, he also represented Oxford at football, racquets and golf.[3] However, although he did fairly well, it was not until 1899 that his beautiful and immaculate driving to the off-side made him into one of the finest batsmen of his time. He had played for Worcestershire while they were still a minor county but in 1899, their inaugural season as a first-class county, he and his brother Wilfrid Foster both scored two hundreds in a match (against Hampshire), a feat which remains unique in county cricket.[4] In 1900, as captain of Oxford, he scored 171[5] to set the record for the highest individual score in the Varsity Match, and he scored 102 not out and 136 for the Gentlemen against the Players at Lord's, the first man to score two centuries in a match in the Gentleman v Players series.[6] In total, Foster scored 930 runs at an average of 77.5 for Oxford in the 1900 season,[7] a record in University cricket.

For these performances, Foster was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1901 and the following year a superb run of form for Worcestershire resulted in him scoring 1,957 runs, at an average of 54.36. However, business prevented him representing the MCC in Australia the following year and England undoubtedly missed his brilliant batting. Moreover, apart from one match against Warwickshire, he could devote no time to first-class cricket in May and June 1902, ruling him out of contention for an England place against Australia.

In 1903, his appearances were restricted to three matches in June and August, but England were desperate for a captain for that winter's Ashes tour. Foster was (oddly) able to arrange to be away from England. Although one might have feared that he would be out of practice, in the first Test at Sydney in 1903, Foster scored 287.[2] This was the highest score in Test cricket until 1930 (surpassed by Andy Sandham), and (as of 2009) remains the highest score by a debutant, the highest by a non-Australian batsman in Australia, and the second highest by a batsman of any nationality against Australia, home or away (surpassed only by Len Hutton's 364 in 1938).[8] For more than a century, Foster also held the record for the highest score in a test match at the SCG, his score not being beaten until Australian Michael Clarke scored 329 not out against India in January 2012.[9] Foster did not follow it up, until the final Test on a vicious wicket at Melbourne, where he top-scored in both innings with 18 (in a total of 61 all out) and, having been promoted to open, an excellent 30 (out of 101 all out).[10]

In the following three seasons Foster could spare no time for cricket, apart from August 1905 (when he scored 246 on his first appearance[11]), but in 1907 he was able to find time to play regularly from the beginning of June. His batting was as good as ever in a summer of appalling wickets and helped Worcestershire (fourteenth of sixteen counties in 1906) to rise to equal second with Yorkshire. He captained England in the three-match series against South Africa in 1907, winning one match and drawing two. Offered the captaincy of the MCC for the 1907/1908 Ashes tour, Foster declined because business commitments were monopolising his attention.

After the Third Test of 1907 he could spare time for only two more first-class matches, one in 1910 (when he scored 133 against Yorkshire[12]) and one in 1912. However, in Saturday club cricket, he never lost his brilliance. In one club match in 1909 he scored 261 in just 75 minutes.
[edit] Football career

In football, Foster played as a forward for the Corinthians in the early 1900s.

He played five matches for England between 1900 and 1902, making his debut against Wales on 26 March 1900. In his second game, against Ireland at the Dell, Southampton, he scored two goals in a 3-0 victory, although only 8,000 saw this, his most distinguished performance. C. B. Fry played at full-back in the same game. Foster was awarded the captaincy against Wales in his final appearance on 3 March 1902, which ended in a 0-0 draw. During his short England career he scored three goals.

Still looking for more F & J Smith's Brown Back soccer cards. Let me know what you have.

I don't know much about this set. Is the Brown Back designation to differentiate between the 1912 F & J Smith blue back set (which seems to have a light blue and dark blue variation) or are there more than one color of backs for the 1906 set?